Villeneuve Happy with Revised BAR Chassis

Jacques Villeneuve welcomed BAR's aerodynamic modifications on Friday but warned his Formula One team they had a long way to go before becoming competitive.

"They feel good, they definitely feel good and it's an improvement," Canada's 1997 World Champion told a news conference at his home Grand Prix after recording the ninth fastest time in free practice.

"I think it's the first time in four years where you feel there's an improvement on the car, so that is a very nice thing. But I think that it will be very, very difficult for us to be in the top 10 tomorrow because I don't think we are that competitive."

British American Racing are the only team yet to score a point this season and Villeneuve's teammate, Frenchman Olivier Panis, has yet to finish a race. Panis was seventh fastest on Friday.

For Villeneuve, who has never won at the circuit named after his late father Gilles, the season has been one long agony after three years of suffering at BAR.

Although the Honda-powered team have taken a step forward, the Canadian said others had not stood still and his team could not expect any dramatic improvements in qualifying for Sunday's eighth race of the year.

"If we didn't have them (the modifications) we would be even slower," he said. "Don't think we have modifications nobody else has. We've made a step forward but everybody else has. Don't expect a major leap. If we qualified comfortably before 14th, 15th, 16th, then now we will be 12th."

Positive Progress

Villeneuve, who has not won a race since 1997 when he was at Williams, feared some fans might believe BAR were more competitive now and be disappointed on Saturday. He pointed out that both he and Panis had been running on low fuel loads to see how the car handled in the setup after concentrating on brakes in the morning.

"The car felt good with and without fuel, which is a good thing, so now we can just concentrate on doing the set-up and we will know that whatever set-up works for qualifying will work for the race as well," he said.

"I actually am more positive with the progress possible with the team now since we have all the new technical people in place. I think that finally the team can make a step forward.

"Now we still have to see what the engine is capable of and I think everyone working hard at Honda has realised there is a lot of work that is needed and that is why there is a new engine that is ready and almost usable."

Honda had hoped to introduce a new engine for Montreal but those plans were shelved after testing at Silverstone last week failed to put enough miles on it.

Honda spokesman Otmar Szafnauer said BAR and Jordan would have an improved version of the engine they used for qualifying in Austria last month and the new one would be introduced in the near future.

"It's quite a task to produce an engine mid-season and it's quite difficult to produce that new engine, test it a week before the race introduction and have it all go well."